Ukrainian the Finnish volunteers who fought for are mainly amused by the wanted notices revealed on Tuesday.
Investigative Journalism Network Mediazona on Tuesday published a list of foreigners wanted by Russia. The list comes from the database of the Russian Ministry of the Interior. The material published by Mediazona contains a total of more than 95,000 names.
There are at least six Finnish volunteers who fought in Ukraine on the list. Topi Huhtala is one of them.
“It's a bit sad that I can't get to St. Petersburg anymore, but there are other cities,” jokes the one who fought in Ukraine in 2022–2023 Topi Huhtala.
“Should I become a rapper and break through with a single like 'Russian most wanted'? This is taken with humor. There is no stress here.”
Huhtala was working the night between Monday and Tuesday and only heard about the wanted notices when he woke up during the day.
“I woke up and saw that there had been a few phone calls. One comrade had posted a message that the guy had received an honorable mention. I said that it didn't come as a surprise. Surely at some point they will pull such a card from there,” he says.
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“If I started stressing about that, it would be a victory for the Russians.”
“These come and go.”
Huhtala says that he has done something right on the front, because Russia has put him on a wanted list.
“If I started stressing about that, it would be a victory for the Russians, and I won't let the Russians win.”
Huhtala has not yet been in contact with the Finnish authorities due to the wanted notice, and the authorities have not been in contact with him.
Huhtala returned to Finland last year. According to him, Ukraine is a life left behind for him for the time being.
“I got myself a bit of my own adventure. Maybe it somehow calmed his restless nature.”
Huhtala no longer wants to put her loved ones in such a situation that they have to fear for her.
“I have new patterns here. I have built a new direction for life. The first year I was a bit lost, and I didn't really know what to do, but now it's starting to get better.”
Huhtala has been featured in the media and talked about her experiences in Ukraine. He has been asked if he is not afraid that the agents of the Russian intelligence service FSB will come to pick him up.
“I said that if they come, then they have to prepare for bad places for the applicants. I'm not going anywhere voluntarily.”
Russian another former Ukrainian volunteer is also on the wanted list Joonas Vainio.
What feelings has the Russian wanted notice aroused?
“Probably the same as if a child in the prime of defiance started nagging me,” Vainio replies.
According to him, the wanted notices do not arouse fear in anyone.
“It's almost laughable to be threatened like that. It also says something about the level of Russian intelligence that they haven't even gotten my year of birth right, although it can be found on my open Facebook profile, as far as I remember.”
Vainio has no plans to return to Ukraine in military uniform. He says that life is going well in Finland now: there is a good job, an apartment and “things are in good order”.
“Of course, those things rarely come to mind that day and you remember them. He has sometimes thought about that too, if he would still do something concrete for Ukraine. There has never been such a desire to return to military work.”
Vainio has not been in contact with the Finnish authorities regarding the matter. He doesn't think the search warrant will affect anything.
“Maybe at some point they will start crying that these Finns should be handed over to Russia, but I don't think that will happen right away.”
HS asked a comment from the Ministry of Justice on the meaning of the wanted list that became public on Tuesday and whether there have been extradition requests in Finland according to it.
Board advisor Sonja Varpasuon according to the Ministry of Justice, no extradition requests related to Tuesday's news or information about persons arrested on the basis of such announcements have arrived.
“States have their own national search warrant systems, about which the Ministry of Justice does not have more detailed information. Interpol is responsible for international wanted notices,” said Varpasuo by email.
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